Yesterday Activision revealed its revenues were down (but earnings up) during the last three month period.
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/706744/Activision-Q2-10-Earnings-Net-Revenue-Down-Online-Sales-Exceed-Retail-For-First-Time-.html
Highpoints apparently are that Wii game sales are down a lot, Activision is selling more via digital downloads than via retail outlets, and "Worldwide subscription numbers for World of Warcraft are holding steady at more than 11.5 million players." Blizzard is also working on adding tournament play and private chat functions to Battle.net. As for Cataclysm, "we are on track to launch the expansion by the end of the year." In the Q&A Activision staff say there are no new Call of Duty map packs available and that the launch of Starcraft 2 hasn't impacted the numbers of subscribers for WOW.
Kotick is claiming "The relaunch of Battle.net is a perfect example of how we are rolling out the next generation of services and online environment to our audiences, while others are just beginning their complicated and costly explorations of where to begin. The combination of technical capability and tangible benefits Blizzard is delivering to its StarCraft audience represents the next evolution in the arenas of gaming, social networking, online commerce and customer service." I guess he's forgotten about xBox Live, Steam, etc.?
If you want to read the transcript of the entire conference call, it is here. The numbers are at the end, with Blizzard's numbers separate from console games. The Q&A session at the end with analysts is also quite interesting as they try to pry subscription numbers and such out of Blizzard staff.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/219068-activision-blizzard-q2-2010-earnings-call-transcript?source=thestreet
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